Connect

Annual Report

At Grassroots International, we have always believed lasting change rises from the grassroots up. Even our name—Grassroots International—celebrates the power and necessity of movements around the world to transform policies, practices and power relationships to ones based on sustainability, equity, resource rights, and justice.

We accomplished so much together in 2016! With your partnership, Grassroots International distributed more than $1 million in cash grants to movements around the world, facilitated powerful exchanges among diverse communities working for global justice, deepened and expanded our advocacy network here in the US, and stood in solidarity with human rights leaders facing tremendous dangers.

But in the face of the alarming rise and mainstreaming of right-wing populism and frontal assaults on basic rights and values, we must do more: we need to build deeper solidarity and mobilize more resources to support movements on the frontlines of the fight for people and the planet.

Our planet’s future depends on climate justice.

From decades of partnership with grassroots movements and organizations around the world, we know that when people who are the most affected by problems organize in dynamic movements, they will devise the most effective and sustainable solutions and responses to the challenges posed, including by climate change. And we know that truly sustainable solutions to climate change must change exploitative systems and build just alternatives, from the ground up.

Climate justice operates at the intersection of racial, gender, ecological and economic justice. It is based on the understanding that those who are experiencing the first and most severe impacts of climate change are not the ones who are most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but that they are the ones with the best solutions. Climate justice focuses on the root causes of climate change, and calls for a transformation to regenerative, community-controlled economies.

Supporting the solutions – Getting resources to the communities and social movements on the frontlines of leading the transition from the extractive economy to sustainable local, living, and linked economies, particularly those led by small farmers, Indigenous Peoples, and Afro-descendent communities.

Changing the story – Showing how sustainable and linked communities everywhere are the key to a healthy planet and better future for all, and advocating for policies that support climate justice.

Globalizing the struggle – Making powerful connections between climate justice movements in the Global South and frontline communities in the US resisting exploitation and environmental damage.

You can read more about the Climate Justice Initiative, our partners and our shared values in the pages of the 2016 annual report. Thank you for being part of this work. Together, we are working to make 2017 a year of spirited resistance and transformative movement building!